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Ms Martin said: 'People also do things they regret and out of character.'

She allegedly poured first a mug and then a kettle of boiling water over the head and chest of Miss Stokes during the attack in November 2015, causing terrible burns.

Miss Stokes was treated for second degree partial thickness burns down to her navel and had surgery for a perforated eardrum.

Miss Stokes (right) was allegedly attacked by Fourie, after starting a relationship with her alleged attacker's husband Wouter (left, he arrives at court)

Fourie has admitted causing grievous bodily harm to her love rival but denies it was done with intent.

She fought back tears as she told how she had spent the previous night away from her husband and their young daughter after he had admitted being unfaithful.

She returned the next day on Saturday, October 24, 2015 and was shocked to find a pair of black women's shoes close to the door of their home in Plymouth.

Wouter told the court he had started his relationship with Miss Stokes a month earlier and on the day in question invited her round to watch rugby on the TV.

Fourie told she was 'heartbroken, devastated' at her husband's infidelity.

She said: 'No words can explain what I was felt at that time. I had never felt like this before. I was broken. I missed my child and I wanted to know she was fine.

'I wanted to speak to Wouter as well as I had so many questions. I did not know where my life had gone.

Fourie (pictured) was supported by friends as she arrived at Plymouth Crown Court yesterday

'I had no idea what he had been up to and no idea there was another woman there. I saw a woman's shoes on the floor and I knew my child was upstairs.

'I felt like this pain in my head, like someone was stabbing me repeatedly in my head.

'I knew she was there with my husband in my house and my child was upstairs. It was two years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday.'

Fourie said did not remember Miss Stokes's face and described her vision from that moment onwards as 'narrow.'

Mr Fourie told the court she said she was going to make a cup of tea but returned with a mug of boiling water and tipped it over his lover, followed by the kettle.

Mr Fourie, who said he had been twice hit by IEDs in Afghanistans, told how he saw steam coming from her head.

Fourie said she could not remember putting the kettle on or anything of the attack itself.

Fourie (left), 34, is alleged to have seen red and doused Miss Stokes (right) with scalding water from a cup and a kettle, covering her head, neck and chest

She added: 'The next thing I remember is for some reason I was walking in the street outside. I do not know how I got there. The pain I cannot describe.

'I felt like my whole world crashed. A woman was in my house with my husband with my kid upstairs. I cannot give any further information about what happened.'

Fourie said a friend then took her to A&E where she saw her husband leaving after he had taken Miss Stokes to hospital.

She said he told her what she had done but she didn't believe him. She added: 'He said 'Do you know what you have done? You poured boiling water on her.'

'I did not believe it. I am not a violent person. I thought he was lying. I would never do this to anybody.'

Fourie said she then left for her native Poland with her daughter to seek support from her family as she was in a 'mess'.

Fourie was alleged to have left love-rival Miss Stokes (pictured) with 'terrible burns'

She added: 'I struggled to believe it. It was like he was talking about some horror story, not about me.

'My family tried to comfort me, but they could not believe Wouter would do such a thing.

'After everything he told me, I felt horrible about what I had done. The only thing I was afraid of was that someone would separate me from my daughter.'

Two weeks later her husband picked her up from the airport and Fourie said she still had hopes they could get together.

She added that, despite Mr Fourie and Miss Stokes embarking on a relationship, she still had sex with her husband and even thought at one stage she was pregnant.

She said: 'My period was late and we had been trying for a second baby for four or five years after my daughter was born.

'It was late by about a week. He went to Tesco to get me a pregnancy test. I don't even know if I was. I will never know as that was the night I was arrested.'

The court also heard that in a text message to her husband, Fourie said: 'Knowing I might be pregnant and you still seeing another woman. How does that make you feel?'

She also told her husband by text: 'Be a man, stop living a lie while you still can.'

Giving evidence, she told the court: 'I was fighting for my husband. I still wanted him back. I did not know anyone else before him.'

Fourie said she later tried to get in contact with Miss Stokes to talk to her about what happened.

She said on the day of her arrest she called Miss Stokes to ask if she wanted to meet for 'coffee and cake and talk about what was going on.'

She added: 'I wanted to ask her to leave my husband alone. I wanted to ask her nicely to stop seeing my husband.'

But she said she was never able to speak with Miss Stokes directly and was arrested at her house at 10pm on November 27, 2015.

Miss Stokes was treated for second degree partial thickness burns down to her navel and had surgery for a perforated eardrum after the alleged attack, Plymouth Crown Court heard

She added: 'It wasn't me. It was not my usual self. It is not me.'

Referring to attempts by Fourie to meet her victim after the alleged attack, Ms Martin added: 'You had thrown boiling water over that woman before, do you really think she would meet you for coffee and cake?

'You may have acted out of character on 24th October, but you knew what you were doing when you poured the kettle all over her.'

Fourie responded: 'No, no.'

The defendant, now divorced, said her South African-born husband who she met in 2004 had confessed to a string of affairs over the few days before the attack.

He then told her he had been unfaithful with someone else and texted her saying 'We need to talk'.

Fourie said: 'I knew there was more to his story. I texted back to say would I like it, as in the conversation?

'He said 'No'. 'I texted back, do you have someone? He texted back 'yes' and I said 'how long?' He said four months. I did not expect that.'

The court heard that Mr Fourie and Miss Stokes split up last year.

Fourie denies causing grievous bodily harm to Miss Stokes with intent. She has pleaded guilty to the alternative charge of causing grievous bodily harm without intent. The trial continues.